I don't know if i would call it "choppy" but i do know what you mean. It took some getting used to to figure out which "wing" shall we say you had to go to to get to certain places. Once we got it, it was easy. The only thing that we didn't like about the Golden was her ride. We sailed 2/14/04 and we had a very choppy, rolly, rocky ride. Since she is so big, so high and so broad nosed, she doesn't cut through the water very well. We would go back to the Sun class ships in a heartbeat - loved the Sea Princess- the layouts are very similar just on a smaller scale. BTW was happy to read that my Sea Princess is coming back from P & O but was saddend to read that my beloved Royal Princess is going over to P & O to sail the British market. (boo hoo)